New Vu+Duo2 Several Problems setting up

[DCG]

you cant realy use the vu with out Ethernet or wirless connection

[lewisgongl]

Mickha, I’ve tried removing the cables, re-flashing, re-doing the basic setup, powering down, re-connecting the cables and then re-starting. To no avail. Cannot move the dish and BH hangs at starting gui. And sorry, I should have said I live just west fo London and I’ve quadruple-checked the lat/long from different websites, including dishpointer.
As to the likely cause I could just make the following comments:
a) The dish movement has been working, but of course it could have developed a fault – is there a way of moving it by hand?
b) The motor is a Technomate 2300, so I would have thought Vu+ would have ensured compatibility. I don’t know about the cables but they have been delivering the power and receiving signals for nine years now. As to the LNB, I’d be happy to get another one if I knew what..
c) Trouble is though, I’m not going to get anywhere as long as BH hangs on starting gui. What would be the best alternative image to try?
d) Faulty receiver – well I do regret not exercising my right during the cooling off period, but I didn’t think I would still be stuck a week later. However, I haven’t opened the box to fit a HDD just in case…
And yes, I wasn’t expecting this trouble. I thought if all I wanted to do was watch a TV station, the thing would work more or less straight out of the box!
Mickha, I do appreciate the trouble you and DCG are going to.

[DCG]

do you have a frend or relative neer you that you can take the box round that has sky tv
then try there sly tv connection and scan in the channels on just 1 tuner

[DCG]

it will just show the gui screen as there s no signal to show
do you have access to a fixed dish

[Mickha]

Are you sure it's hanging on the generated user interface?
The receiver will show this until you actually activate it, by pressing the menu button.

Yes you can manually move the dish, using the receiver:
Menu
Setup
Service Searching
Positioner Setup

Navigate to Positioner Movement and use the appropriate coloured buttons to move the dish East/West, when close to a satellite try the fine tune option.

[lewisgongl]

Thanks guys. I’ve had a glass too many tonight so will gather my thoughts in the morning.

[Mickha]

If the motor isn't moving, or only moving one way, East, or West, then it's possibly a loose connection, or damaged cable, this has happened before.
If it's moving, but not to the right positions, it could be losing count, again due to a loose connection, damaged cable, or even the motor.

[DCG]

im sure you will get it all working tomorrow
its got to be better than a CubeRevo box there crap

[lewisgongl]

DGC – thanks nice idea, and yes my daughter and son-in-law live just round the corner and they have Sky, so can try that. Not for a couple of days though as they’ve got a full house.
Mickha – thanks again. What I meant was, given that I cannot move the dish via the software. Could I climb up (having disconnected the cable from the receiver) and physically move the dish with my hand? Anyway I’ll check connections first. And sadly, the starting gui screen is always there. Getting into menu doesn’t make it go away, the menu options just form a box superimposed on it.

[Mickha]

That's how it works, so when viewing a program, you can still see the channel, when you access the menu.
You will discover this when you scan in some channels, and get it working.
Of course you can move the dish, and motor, on the pole, but this isn't a good idea as your dish will no longer be set to track the arc.
You can't physically force the motor to move, although some motors have East/West buttons, on them, but the motor still requires power. Your problem seems to be more with your dish/motor than your receiver.

[DCG]

I think that motor has a maual reset button on it you may need a paper clip to press the reset

[lewisgongl]

Thanks guys. I'll try to get up there tomorrow.

[lewisgongl]

Well let’s give it to that Mickha “If the motor isn't moving, or only moving one way, East, or West, then it's possibly a loose connection, or damaged cable, this has happened before.” Too right, it’s happened again. When I got up to the dish – guess what – a co-ax cable floating in the wind (not really windy, else I wouldn’t have got up there). I t was the connector from the motor to the LNB. It must have got loose after all the journeys east and west I made it do. In fact, I couldn’t get it really tight so I have fitted a new F connector and it’s now nice and tightened with a spanner. The other connectors, two at the LNB, one other at the motor, and both at the receiver are OK.
And let’s give it to that DCG . “I think that motor has a manual reset button on it” Too right, and yes, some other websites talk of pushing a paper clip on to a red button on the PCB. I did find holes but pushing a long paper clip down them didn’t find anything but there was a black button which I pressed a few times.
So I was quite elated, having found some obvious faults, but have been deflated when I found that nothing has changed. To add to my troubles, the remote is playing up. I press a button and nothing happens. Ezoiks! I’ve got through a set of batteries in a week! Perfectly credible, because I must have done as many button presses in a week as the average sane person does in a year. However, new non-rechargeable batteries straight out of the box haven’t really made a difference. I may sit there and flick through a number of options as normal, or it may stop and I have to wait and re-press several times until something happens.
I’ve packed up for the day, but I’ll try one or two other things tomorrow. One is to check voltage at the motor. The receiver gives me 13.6v DC. (Is that enough for a 80cm dish?) I also have the luxury of having the dish just outside a window, so I can try moving the receiver up there and trying a different cable, and generally fiddle while I have access to the mysterious black button etc. Unfortunately I know the remote won’t have any effect if I’m standing outside, because it doesn’t when I’m just inside.

[Mickha]

If the cable has been loose, for any length of time, you could have water ingress, into the cable, or even a damaged LNB.
I'd first replace the cable, your idea to use a short cable run will help narrow down the problem.
Just remember to ensure that the cable connections are done correctly, I've had F Connectors that were too tight, and in forcing them on I've cut all the left over braid, leaving an intermittent/failing connection.

[DCG]

must be faulty battrys then as I use the remote from my 7 year ish old uno to controle the uno and the solo2 never changed the battreys yet mind you I did start with Duracell at the start
did you try at your daughters house to scan in 28.2e

you no its just like a brand new pc with windows installed lol
you want to use office but cant as you haven't installed office lol

[DCG]

did you recive my pm requesting which account you wanted deleting as ive had no reply

[lewisgongl]

Well a lot of progress today. I set the positioner to move the dish west, then went up to the dish, and by pressing and holding down the reset button, it did move west, and stopped when I took my finger off. So thanks for that tip DCG.
Back indoors, it still wouldn’t move west, but it did go to 0, which was a little way east. Once there, it did a manual scan of Thor at 0.6W and found over 200 services.
Furthermore, I’ve actually watched one of them. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the dish isn’t positioned exactly on 0.6W, a few had SNRs of 50%-60%, so the screen went blank, but let’s give it Al Jazeera with 72%.
I’ll fiddle some more and follow up your suggestions Mickha, but at least I know the receiver is working, so don’t have to try it out on another dish.
I’m very grateful, guys.

[lewisgongl]

A bit more fiddling, but haven’t really made progress. I rigged up another cable from the receiver to the motor, with much the same results. I take Mickha’s point about over-tightened F connectors and possible water ingress. As to the latter, the cable from the motor to the receiver looks fine – no sign of oxidation, and it did have a weather boot. The one that was loose was from the motor to the LNB. At one point I did succeed with Move West in Positioner set-up. Later I thought maybe the F connector at the receiver end wasn’t making contact, so I tightened the 11mm nut to the point that the whole connector was turning. Maybe not related, but after that I could not move the dish at all from the Receiver remote.
Today, what I’ve seen is that Go to 0 has worked once or twice, to the extent that I can watch a channel from Thor, but other times it just move a little way east, but not to anywhere near enough to 1W. Satellite finder has claimed to find 19.2E, 5W and has done manual scans but found nothing. In neither case did any colour appear in the SNR bar, so I assume it hadn’t really found the satellite. Incidentally, when the dish moves, no colour appears in the SNR bar for a moment and disappears as the dish continues to move. Is that normal?
It just looks to me as if the dish doesn’t know where it is, or the receiver doesn’t know where the dish is – because the dish can’t tell it (?). So is it that the motor is now kaput (as our Vu+ friends might say)? It’s eight years old, and hasn’t done a lot of work, except in the last week! Perhaps I’ve got to dismantle it and look inside – maybe not a huge job, but will have to set aside some time.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Is there anything else I could try? Or do I have to think in terms of a new motor?

[Mickha]

The motor could be losing position.
You could try setting up Diseqc 1.2.
Set the Tuner, controlling the motor, to advanced, select a satellite, like Thor 0.8W, set LNB to LNB 1, go down the list to Usals with this satellite and set it to no, go to the second page and store the satellite at position 1.
Next add another satellite, like 4.9e, and store this at 2, 7E at 3, etc...
Then go to motor setup and move the motor to the correct position, 0.8W, and store at 1, then move East until you find 5E and store this at 2, so that they match your initial setup.
Once done check if the motor moves to the correct position.
You can also download a channel list, and use dreamboxedit, to load it onto your receiver.

[lewisgongl]

Thanks, I set out to try the Disecq solution, but couldn’t get anywhere as the motor seemed to be dead. The traditional reset button had no effect. I eventually traced the cause – the receiver was not delivering a voltage. Of course that was after checking and re-checking connectors, trying different cables and up and down a ladder n times – so half a day gone.
All was not lost though – there was a voltage coming from the other tuner. So I swapped over the cables at the receiver end, tried the Disecq suggestion and started to get somewhere – like got a channel to watch on 5W and 2.2E. I thought I’d done the position storage correctly, but going back, and trying to add satellites 4, 5 and 6, I was all over the place. Now I thought, I could go back to USALS and hey presto! Things seem to be working. I’ve done manual scans of 19.2E and 28.2E, watched a BBC channel and S4C for a few seconds. It’s successfully gone back to 5W where I watched a few seconds of a French station and it’s doing a re-scan at the moment. So fingers crossed, I’m over the hill, thanks to you two guys.
Of course, I now have a residual worry. I suspect failing to find a voltage may be a godsend – because it may explain what was happening before - probably intermittent voltages, and that would mean the modulated signals were erratic. Does that make sense? If so, perhaps I should send it back? I’m a competent DIY electrician, and could open the box and check for any loose connections and track voltages, but I don’t want to invalidate my warranty.